Commodus and the Severi

Abstract

The wisdom with which the emperors from Nerva to Antoninus had ordered the succession was partly due to the accident that none of them had sons to survive them. But no such play of chance intervened to insure M. Aurelius against a wrong choice. Though several of his sons died prematurely, a youth (nearly eighteen years old) named L. Aurelius Commodus remained to uphold the claims of heredity, and with the same excess of family loyalty as had previously prompted him to take L. Verus into partnership, the last of the ‘good emperors’ accepted the risk of transmitting his power to an untried man. In promoting Commodus over the heads of several competent generals and ministers M. Aurelius no doubt speculated on his son’s willingness to retain these right-hand men in his service.1

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Notes and References

7.

On the Severi see Herodian, ii-vi; Dio Cassius, lxviii-lxxx; Historia Augusta, relevant Lives. On Septimius Severus see M. Platnauer, The Life and Reign of the Emperor L. Septimius Severus (1918);Google Scholar

A useful and detailed bibliography of modern work published on the years A.D. 193–284 during the period 1939 to 1959 is provided by G. Walser and T. Pekary, Die Krise der römischen Reiches (1962).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8.

On the eastern campaigns of Septimius and Caracalla see N. C. Debevoise, Political History of Parthia (1938), 256 ff.Google Scholar